In-depth Peer Review Workshop: Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (GR)

12 Feb 2015 to 13 Feb 2015
Hotel Grecotel Egnatia, Alexandroupolis (GR)

Together with the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (REMTh), JRC-IPTS is currently carrying out a European Parliament Preparatory Action. This project has two main aims: to provide "hands-on" support to the implementation of the RIS3 in REMTh, a region heavily hit by the crisis, and to generate lessons for other convergence regions in Greece and Europe.

Agenda and Presentations

Event agenda

The event started on 12 February 2015 with a plenary session which included the following presentations to set the scene for the event:

Welcome - George Pavlides, Regional Governor of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace
Welcome & Introduction to the project & structure of the day – Mark Boden - project leader for the Preparatory Action at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre - JRC-IPTS
Greek national strategy for research and innovation – Michael Goumas – GSRT
Regional smart specialisation strategy – Petros Soukoulias – President of REMTh's Innovation & Entrepreneurship Council
State-of-play of RIS3 strategies in Europe: an overview – John Edwards – JRC, IPTS

Following that, attendants moved to the working tables which covered the following topics on the 13th of February. For each working table the region had previously prepared a power-point presentation highlighting the questions o be discussed.

The second day of the event was opened by Markus Pieper, the MEP behind the launch of the Preparatory Action together with George Pavlides, Governor of the Region. Mr Marek Przeor, from DG REGIO, gave an overview of the previous day of the event.

Following that the participants split again, in the same groups as the previous days, to discuss the following:

The event concluded with a plenary, in which the lessons learnt in each working group were shared and in which Markus Pieper, George Pavlides, Vasilios Pitsinigkos, Mark Boden, Marek Przeor shared their thoughts in a round table discussion.

Summary report

Practical Information

When: 12 Feb 2015 to 13 Feb 2015
Where: Hotel Grecotel Egnatia, Alexandroupolis (GR)
Registration Information: Registration is closed.

Description

Together with the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (REMTh), JRC-IPTS has recently completed a European Parliament Preparatory Action. This activity had two main aims: to provide "hands-on" support to the implementation of the RIS3 in REMTh, a region heavily hit by the crisis, and to generate lessons for other convergence regions in Greece and Europe.

As part of this activity, an in-depth peer review was organised. This event built on the approach successfully employed by the JRC Smart Specialisation Platform over the past three years. Typically, a small number of selected regions critically review each other's RIS3s. In a departure from this approach and in line with the objectives of the Preparatory action, this event focused on a single region. This enabled detailed examination of key aspects of the implementation of the REMTh RIS3.

Organised in the city of Alexandroupolis in the east of the region, the event brought together invited peers and regional stakeholders, to share experiences, both in the context of the implementation REMTh RIS3 and with a view to generating lessons for other regions.